Sean with a male goliath bird eating spider on his head in Guyana. Note: don’t try this at home. Photo: Jonathan Meiburg.

But not all tarantulas are large! Here is a tiny tarantula from the rainforest of Guyana.

To get a better idea of the size of this spider, here’s a shot of Sean’s traveling companion, Jonathan Meiburg, photographing the little beastie.

This tarantula is less than 2 cm long and likely not yet mature, but even full-sized it will be less than 3 cm long.

We suspect that this is a Neostenotarsusspecies, but there is not much information available about these tarantulas. What I have been able to find indicates that they are fairly well known in the pet trade, but information on their biology is lacking.

UPDATE: Thanks to Stuart Longhorn for informing us that this spider is most likely in the genus Catanduba, not Neostenotarsus (likewise for the images linked above).

The wee spider strikes a defensive pose.

The size and colour of this tarantula reminded Sean of a velvet ant when he first saw it.What do you think?